Griffin: Statement on Scientific Openness

February 4, 2006

Werhner von Braun on Management

The Sixteenth National Conference on the Management of Research
September 18, 1962

When I was invited to talk with you today about management, I accepted the invitation quite readily.  It isn’t often that I get the opportunity to meet seven experienced and distinguished managers. Just for the privilege or telling you the same thing everybody else does; namely, that no matter how you are running your organization, you are doing it all wrong and you should do it our way.

At Marshall we can still carry an idea for a space launch vehicle and its guidance system from the concept through the entire development cycle of design, development, fabrication, and static testing, and we have every intention to preserve and nurture a limited in-house capability.  The reason is simple:  the ability of American industry to produce fine products is unquestionable.  To market them, it has developed a persuasiveness in salesmanship that is unequaled.  It's not easy for the Government to determine which bid or proposal we receive from industry is best, and how well competing claims and estimates can be substantiated.  In order for us to use the very best judgment possible in spending the taxpayer's money intelligently, we just have to do a certain amount of this research and development work ourselves.  We just have to keep our own hands dirty to command the professional respect of the contractor personnel engaged with actual design, shop and testing work.

Otherwise, our own ability to establish standards and to evaluate the proposals -- and later the performance -- of contractors would not be up to par.  Our Marshall Center engineers operate like doctors. i.e., you take the doctor away from his patients, he soon forgets how to practice medicine and starts writing books or publishing trade journals about it.

O'Keefe Resignation Letter

Text, typed.

Handwritten

December 13, 2004

Dear Mr. President,

It has been my distinct honor and privilege to serve in your first term. I would like nothing more than to continue to serve at your pleasure. The extraordinary opportunities you have permitted me to assume these last four years have been experiences of a lifetime.

President Bush Delivers Remarks On U.S. Space Policy
January 14, 2004

Inspired by all that has come before, and guided by clear objectives, today we set a new course for America's space program. We will give NASA a new focus and vision for future exploration. We will build new ships to carry man forward into the universe, to gain a new foothold on the moon and to prepare for new journeys to the worlds beyond our own.

Special Message to the Congress on Urgent National Needs
President John F. Kennedy
Delivered in person before a joint session of Congress
May 25, 1961

First, I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish.

Address Before a Joint Session of the Congress on the State of the Union
January 25, 1984

America has always been greatest when we dared to be great. We can reach for greatness again. We can follow our dreams to distant stars, living and working in space for peaceful, economic, and scientific gain. Tonight, I am directing NASA to develop a permanently manned space station and to do it within a decade.

goldin_remarks_5ps.doc

"New Directions in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering"

Princeton University, April 20, 2001